Many land-based military vehicles, particularly armored vehicles, such as tanks, personnel carriers, and the like, are provided with optical navigation systems, which enable the vehicle operator to visually navigate the vehicle while the operator resides in the interior of the vehicle in visual isolation from the surroundings of the vehicle. The operator navigates the vehicle by viewing a display for the optical navigation system, which provides the operator with a two-dimensional likeness of the three-dimensional real-life environment outside the vehicle. As such, the optical navigation system permits the operator to drive the vehicle, while reducing the exposure of the operator to enemy weaponry in a surrounding combat environment.
One of the shortcomings of conventional optical navigation systems is that the two-dimensional images produced by the displays lack a sensation of depth, which can lead to operator disorientation and navigational errors with serious consequences, particularly in combat situations. Although stereoscopic imaging technology, which produces so called 3-D stereo images, i.e., two-dimensional images having a sensation of depth, has been in existence for many years, prior art stereoscopic imaging technology is not readily adaptable to visual navigation applications for vehicles having severe space constraints, which is typical of most land-based military vehicles. Prior art stereoscopic imaging assemblies generally employ CRT displays, which are effective for their intended purpose, but are relatively cumbersome. Size constraints make CRT displays prohibitively bulky for most military applications as well as many civilian applications.
Flat panel displays can meet the size constraints for military applications, but to date have not met the performance requirements for stereoscopic imaging assemblies. The present invention recognizes a need for integrating a relatively small display into an effective stereoscopic imaging assembly.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an effective stereoscopic imaging assembly which employs a flat panel display to substantially reduce the size requirements of the assembly. More particularly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an effective stereoscopic imaging assembly simultaneously providing the observer with a right visual image and a left visual image on the viewing panel of the flat panel display which the observer can synthesize into a single stereoscopic visual image. It is another object of the present invention to provide an effective stereoscopic imaging assembly which provides the observer with both the right and left visual images distributed across the viewing panel of the flat panel display. It is still another object of the present invention to provide an effective stereoscopic imaging assembly which provides the observer with fully integrated right and left visual images evenly distributed across the entire viewing panel of the flat panel display to eliminate half-black imaging. It is a further object of the present invention to provide an effective stereoscopic imaging assembly which integrates the polarization-defining front polarizer with the image pixels of the flat panel display. It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide an effective stereoscopic imaging assembly which provides the observer with right and left visual images with corrected parallax to eliminate or reduce ghosting from the output of the flat panel display.
These objects and others are accomplished in accordance with the invention described hereafter.